Coupon display carton



P 1964 L. J. LIGHTNER ETAL 3,147,856

COUPON DISPLAY CARTON Filed Nov. 21, 1963 FIG] INVENIORS LEON J. LIGHTNER HOMER A. MARTELL| ADWHMBTISINWHIW ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,147,856 CGUPGN DISILAY CARTDN Leon J. Lightner, Livingston, and Homer A. Martelli,

Westwood, N.J., assignors to Union Bag-Camp Paper Corporation, New York, N.Y., a corporation of Virginia Filed Nov. 21, 1963, Ser. No. 325,342 2 Claims. (Cl. 206-47 The present invention relates generally to display cartons, and in particular to display cartons which incorporate removable premium coupons in their structure.

The practice has become widespread in recent years for merchandisers to offer premium coupons to purchasers of their goods in order to increase sales volume. These coupons may take an infinite variety of forms and their manner of distribution to prospective or actual purchasers of the products involved likewise is numerous and sundry.

One approach to premium coupon distribution has been to offer the coupon with a package of the product involved. The coupon generally may be part of the package material itself or may be a separate article incorporated in the package makeup. This invention concerns itself with a novel display package arrangement whereby a tear out portion of the package material itself comprises a premium coupon.

In merchandising practice, a coupon that is visible or partly visible when the package is in its normal display position has more attention drawing potential than a mere statement on the canton that a coupon is being oiiered with the package that is for sale. On the other hand, the face of a package cannot be made all coupon or the brand identity that is associated with the normal package label becomes diluted. Yet, coupons must generally be of such a size and character that they may be negotiated conveniently in the desired manner without needless anxiety being aroused on the part of persons handling the coupons Thus, What is desirable in a package or display car-ton incorporating a premium coupon is that the coupon be a part of the package material itself to eliminate the need to wrap or otherwise incorporate the coupon in the package structure. Secondly, it is very desirable that the coupon arrangement on the package be attention-getting and, if possible, even arouse curiosity on the part of a prospective buyer which will encourage his closer scrutiny of the package.

It is furthermore desired in a coupon offering carton that the coupon, while being visible or partly visible to a viewer when the package is normally displayed, interfere as little as possible with the standard label of the carton; that the coupon be protected during shipping and handling but easily removed after purchase of the carton; that it be necessary to deface or partially destroy the carton by peeling back a tear strip to obtain the coupon, thus discouraging pilferage of the coupon at retail locations; that the coupon be large and flat to enhance its ease of negotiations; and that the cost of the coupon carton be kept to a minimum.

The object of the present invention is to provide a coupon offering display carton having all of the above desirable features. This is accomplished generally by imprinting the coupon being olfered on an inner partition of the carton, which partition extends parallel to but spaced part from the normal front panel of the package when the carton is fully assembled and providing a peephole or display aperture in the front panel of the carton whereby a viewer simultaneously may observe both the front of the carton and a portion of the coupon disposed just behind the front panel. It will be readily appreciated that with such an arrangement, the coupon size is limited only by the partition size within the carton, which partition may be the same size as the front face panel, if desired. By making the coupon a tear out segment of the partition, the coupon becomes an integral part of the carton while being easily separable therefrom at the proper time. To enable simple removal of the coupon from the inner partition of the carton, the outer front panel of the package is provided with a tear out portion. When the tear out portion is removed, the coupon within the carton is completely exposed, whereupon it may be readily removed from the package.

The foregoing and other objects, features and advantages of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part appear hereinafter.

The invention accordingly comprises an article of manufacture possessing the features, properties, and the relation of elements which will be exemplified in the article hereinafter described and the scope of the invention which will be indicated in the claims.

For a fuller understanding of the nature and objects of the invention, reference should be had to the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is a plan View of a carton blank formed in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 2 is a front elevation view of the folded coupon carton;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along 33 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the coupon carton; and

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the coupon carton with the coupon partially removed.

Referring now to the drawings and specifically to FIG. 1, a blank 10 of paperboard or the like is formed to provide a plurality of pannel sections 12 through 15 joined along fold lines 22 through 28 respectively. End closure flaps 30 and 31 are provided at the opposite ends of panel 15; end flap 32 is provided at one end of panel 16; end flaps 33 and 34 at the ends of panel 17; and end flaps 35 at the end of panel 18.

Perforated tear lines 33 are provided in panel 12 and a fold line 40 extends adjacent one edge of the panel 12 parallel to the edge extremity 41 thereof. Glue line 42 extends along the area of blank between the fold line 46 in panel 12 and the edge extremity 41. An aperture 44 is provided in panel 16, preferably towards the end thereof having flap 32 extending therefrom. Tear lines 46 are provided in panel 16, and a fold line 48 extends the short way across the panel between fold lines 25 and 26 so as to provide a tear strip area 49 in panel 16. It will be readily appreciated that the longitudinally extending tear lines 38 and 46 in panels 12 and 16 preferably co-extend along fold lines 40, 22, 2S and 26 as shown in FIG. 1, although it is not necessary that they do so. Glue line 42 across panel 12 and glue line 5% across panel 19 are on the inner or unprinted face of the blank (upper side of blank shown in FIG. 1). Glue lines 51 and 52 are provided on the opposite face (down side of blank shown in FIG. 1) of the blank across panels 14 and 13, respectively. These glue lines may be applied simultaneously to both faces of the blank as it is fed through the gluer, or one or more lines may be applied as the blank is being folded. It will become apparent later in the description that panel 19 and that portion of panel is adjacent panel 19, as may be seen in FIG. 1, may be omitted if desired, since they do not form any enclosing or wrapping portion of the carton to be formed from the blank shown.

The blank shown in FIG. 1 is folded to form the carton shown in FIGS. 2 through 5. Printing of the blank is performed before folding, of course, and the printing of the blank is done completely on one side, that side being the opposite or down side of the blank as viewed in FIG. 1.

As seen in FIGS. 2 and 3, the panels 15, 16, 17 and 18 form the outer sidewalls of the carton, with panels 13 and 14 abutting the panels 17 and 18, respectively, to form double thickness sidewalls in these areas. Panel 19 is doubled over at fold line 28 to form a double thickness panel extending upwardly from the folded carton. The purpose of this double panel is to provide additional advertising area for display purposes, and to assist in keeping the folded carton oriented properly so that the front panel 16 will be displayed towards the front of the shelf or stack. It also prevents the carton from inadvertently being displayed upside down. It will be readily appreelated that the double panel section formed by folding panel 19 over panel 18 is not essential for the formation of the carton proper of this invention and could be dispensed with if desired.

As seen in FIGS. 1 and 3, a premium coupon 54 is imprinted on the tear out segment of panel 12 bounded by tear lines 38. The nature of the premium coupon is only limited by what may be printed in the coupon tear out area 54, and, of course, the size of the coupon 54 itself is limited only by the size of panel 12 between fold lines 22 and 4t and the edge of the blank material in the other direction. The transverse length of panel 12, of course, can be of any suitable dimension, though preferably it corresponds to the width of the blank material. While a rectangular coupon 54 has been illustrated, it will be appreciated that the coupon could be cut in any shape desired within the space limitation.

When the blank 10 is folded as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the panel 12 of blank It becomes an inner partition of the carton extending parallel to but spaced from the front panel 16. Partition 12 is glued to the container along lines 42, 52 as seen in FIG. 3, and when so dis posed, a portion of the coupon 54 imprinted on the partition 12 is visible to an observer through display aperture 44 or peep hole in front panel 16. In the preferred embodiment illustrated, one edge 56 of coupon 54 terminates opposite the aperture 44. As indicated by the term display in FIG. 2, an eye catching, colorful imprint may be provided on partition 12 opposite the aperture 44 to attract the attention or arouse the curiosity of a prospective purchaser.

Assuming now that the contents of the carton have been removed, and it is desired to separate the coupon 54 from the carton, as seen in FIG. 5, first the outer tear strip 49 in panel 16 is peeled back to fold line 48 so as to fully expose the coupon 54 on inner partition 12 of the folded carton. This is easily accomplished, since a finger may be inserted in the aperture 44 to enable one to grasp the tear strip 49 which has one edge 57 thereof termi- 55 nating at the aperture 44. The extremity 56 of coupon 54 is then freed along its tear line from the partition 12 and is peeled back along its outer tear lines until it is entirely separated from the carton, which may then be discarded.

It is thus clear that the present invention provides a coupon carton that is attractive, eye catching, curiosity arousing, while being very practical in that a flat coupon of relatively large dimension may be offered to a purchaser without the need for drastically changing the package face.

Since certain changes may be made in the above article, and different embodiments of the invention could be made without departing from the scope thereof, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description (or shown in the accompanying drawing) shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

It is also to be understood that the following claims are intended to cover all of the generic and specific features of the invention herein described, and all statements of the scope of the invention which, as a matter of language, might be said to fall therebetween.

Having described our invention, what we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A folded premium coupon offering display carton comprising sidewalls, end closures, and an inner partition extending between two of said sidewalls and generally parallel to but spaced apart from a third one of said sidewalls, said third one of said sidewalls including a display aperture and having a tear strip portion, said partition including a tear out section bounded by tear lines, said tear out section of said partition comprising a premium coupon, said tear strip in said third side wall being disposed directly opposite and in alignment with said premium coupon whereby said premium coupon is exposed for view and removal by tearing when said tear strip is torn back from said third sidewall, an end portion of said tear strip in said third sidewall forming an edge area of said aperture, and the opposite end of said tear strip terminating along a transverse line.

2. A premium coupon offering display carton comprising a one-piece blank folded to provide four outer sidewalls, end closure flaps and an inner partition extending between two of said outer sidewalls and generally parallel to but spaced apart from the two other sidewalls; a tear strip and an aperture in one of said other sidewalls, one edge of said tear strip forming an edge area of said aperture, a tear out portion in said partition bounded by perforated tear lines, said tear out portion comprising a printed premium coupon, said aperture being disposed opposite a portion of said coupon whereby a portion of said coupon is visible through the aperture, said tear strip being disposed directly opposite and in alignment with said coupon whereby when said tear strip is removed by tearing, the coupon is fully exposed for facilitating separation of same from the carton.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,943,074 Heyman Jan. 9, 1934 2,804,201 Chappell Aug. 27, 1957 FOREIGN PATENTS 451,811 Great Britain Aug. 12, 1936 

2. A PREMIUM COUPON OFFERING DISPLAY CARTON COMPRISING A ONE-PIECE BLANK FOLDED TO PROVIDE FOUR OUTER SIDEWALLS, END CLOSURE FLAPS AND AN INNER PARTITION EXTENDING BETWEEN TWO OF SAID OUTER SIDEWALLS AND GENERALLY PARALLEL TO BUT SPACED APART FROM THE TWO OTHER SIDEWALLS; A TEAR STRIP AND AN APERTURE IN ONE OF SAID OTHER SIDEWALLS, ONE EDGE OF SAID TEAR STRIP FORMING AN EDGE AREA OF SAID APERTURE, A TEAR OUT PORTION IN SAID PARTITION BOUNDED BY PERFORATED TEAR LINES, SAID TEAR OUT PORTION COMPRISING A PRINTED PREMIUM COUPON, SAID APERTURE BEING DISPOSED OPPOSITE A PORTION OF SAID COUPON WHEREBY A PORTION OF SAID COUPON IS VISIBLE THROUGH THE APERTURE, SAID TEAR STRIP BEING DISPOSED DIRECTLY OPPOSITE AND IN ALIGNMENT WITH SAID COUPON WHEREBY WHEN SAID TEAR STRIP IS REMOVED BY TEARING, THE COUPON IS FULLY EXPOSED FOR FACILITATING SEPARATION OF SAME FROM THE CARTON. 